Handsontable Editor Development

Editor state machine

Editors are stateful objects cycling through four states: VIRGIN (just created, never opened), EDITING (visible and accepting input), WAITING (editing finished, awaiting async validation), and FINISHED (validation complete, editor closed). Never skip states or transition backwards except through a full reset.

File structure

src/editors/{editorName}/
  {editorName}.ts    # Main class extending BaseEditor
  index.ts           # Re-exports

Registry: src/editors/registry.ts. Factory: src/editors/factory.ts.

Lifecycle methods (required overrides)

Method	Purpose
init()	Create DOM elements, set up event listeners.
prepare()	Called before editing starts. Receives row, col, prop, TD, cellProperties.
getValue()	Return the current editor value.
setValue(newValue)	Set the editor value (called before open).
open()	Show the editor, position it, capture focus.
close()	Hide the editor, release focus.
focus()	Set focus to the editor's input element.
beginEditing()	Start the editing process (calls prepare, setValue, open).
finishEditing()	End editing, trigger validation, close if valid.

Positioning

Always use getEditedCellRect() for viewport-, scroll-, and overlay-aware positioning. Never calculate position manually - it will break with frozen rows/columns and scrolled viewports.

Key patterns

• All editors extend BaseEditor from src/editors/baseEditor/baseEditor.ts.
• Support both full edit mode (Enter key opens editor, all keys go to the editor) and fast edit mode (typing a character immediately opens the editor with that character).
• finishEditing() supports async validation - the editor enters WAITING state until the validator resolves.
• Use this.hot.rootDocument instead of document for DOM creation (required for iframe support).
• Use EventManager for event handling so listeners are cleaned up automatically.

Reference implementations

• src/editors/textEditor/textEditor.ts - Standard text editing with a textarea.
• src/editors/selectEditor/selectEditor.ts - Dropdown selection pattern.
• src/editors/baseEditor/baseEditor.ts - Base class defining all lifecycle methods and state transitions.

IME (Input Method Editor) gotcha

For CJK languages, compositionstart/compositionend events have timing issues that affect when to read the editor value. Do not read or commit the value between compositionstart and compositionend - the composition is still in progress and the value is intermediate. The BaseEditor handles this, but custom editors that override key event handling must respect composition state.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting to clean up DOM elements and event listeners in close().
• Not handling focus correctly, which breaks keyboard navigation after closing the editor.
• Positioning without getEditedCellRect(), which breaks with overlays, scroll, and frozen rows/columns.
• Not supporting both LTR and RTL layouts - always use logical CSS properties or check this.hot.isRtl().
• Using document directly instead of this.hot.rootDocument.
• Not calling super methods in lifecycle overrides (super.init(), super.close(), etc.).